This screenshot made on an iPad shows the new Apple Maps app released Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012. The app replaces Google Maps with Apple's own application. Early upgraders are reporting that the new maps are less detailed, look weird and misplace landmarks. It's shaping up to be a rare setback for Apple. (AP Photo)

Apple (AAPL), CEO Tim Cook said in a statement released Friday, is sorry. Sorry its new Maps app for the iPhone and iPad sucks at times. Sorry that scores of users have been led on wild goose chases using the thing. Sorry Apple did not quite live up to its “incredibly high standard” this time around.

And while Cook did not say Apple was sorry for booting Google (GOOG) Maps off its iPhone’s home screen and replacing it with its own directionally challenged version, he may as well have. In his statement, the CEO encouraged users to download other apps and mapping tools to find their way around town, at least until Apple works out the kinks.

“I’m used to more functionality from Apple, not less,” said Jeremy Kemp, a lecturer at the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State, adding that he got so frustrated using Maps the other day to find a transit route home that he “ended up putting the iPhone in my pocket and asking someone at the train station for directions. It’s good that Cook has apologized; it’s actually noble. But I’d rather have functionality than nobility.”

While the blogosphere worked itself into a fine lather all week agonizing over Maps’ shortcomings, analysts cautioned that the map flap will have little effect on the company’s solid-gold bottom line. They said Apple makes most of its money selling gadgets, not software. Some pointed out that most new apps, including Google Maps when it was introduced in 2005, had bugs. But over time, as more users essentially trained the software to navigate even smarter, the apps improved.

Pointing out that Twitter sentiment in the week since the iPhone 5’s debut was 71 percent positive versus 49 percent for the iPhone 4S, analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray said in a note to investors that “the bottom line is that consumers do not seem to be overly concerned about the shortcomings of Maps.”

Users who dislike Apple Maps can download other map apps, or access sites such as Google Maps through the browser. But because non-Apple apps aren’t native to the device, clicking an address in an email on an iPhone 5 would still call up the Apple mapping tool, not the alternative.

Cook’s public apology stood in stark contrast to how his predecessor, the late Steve Jobs, might have handled the brouhaha. After problems arose with the iPhone 4’s antenna and its impact on signal strength — a saga dubbed “Antennagate” — Jobs was ridiculed for suggesting users simply alter the way they hold the devise. Although Jobs admitted at a news conference that “we’re not perfect and phones aren’t perfect, either,” some interpreted his response to Antennagate as defensive, even a bit sarcastic.

Cook’s approach was far more conciliatory.

“At Apple,” the CEO said, “we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.”

Some analysts speculate that Apple dumped Google Maps because of the growing rivalry between the two tech giants. But in his statement, Cook said Apple’s primary aim is to “provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps.”

Ever since the Cupertino company released an update to its iPhone and iPad operating system that replaced Google Maps with its own app, the Internet has been deluged with complaints that the new software offers fewer details, lacks public transit directions and puts landmarks in the wrong place. One reviewer pointed out that when he fired up Maps, the Washington Monument was misplaced, and a search for Cleveland, Ga., took him to Cleveland, Tenn.

The grousing has not let up, filling repositories like the one at the http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com with embarrassing examples of Apple Maps run amok. Motorola even piled on, creating an ad with the caption “#iLost” placed beneath the ill-fated iPhone app.

But Analyst Shaw Wu with Sterne Agee praised Cook, saying “at the end of the day, Apple’s goal is to deliver the best user experience possible, and that’s exactly what they’re doing, even if it means sending users to other vendors for the time being.

“What they care about is: Are you happy with the hardware? If you are, fine,” Wu said. “But if you want to use other software, go ahead. Apple’s in the business of selling phones and tablets. And this won’t hurt that.”

Contact Patrick May at 408-920-5689. Follow him at Twitter.com/patmaymerc.

Patrick May is an award-winning writer for the Bay Area News Group working with the business desk as a general assignment reporter. Over his 34 years in daily newspapers, he has traveled overseas and around the nation, covering wars and natural disasters, writing both breaking news stories and human-interest features. He has won numerous national and regional writing awards during his years as a reporter, 17 of them spent at the Miami Herald.

Otto Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 at the end of a brief tourist visit to North Korea. He had been medically evacuated and was being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center when he died at age 22.